5/03/2013

from Online Marketing Blogby Alexis HallThe average consumer goes through more than five touch points with an ecommerce business before they convert. This number is trending upward, as companies and customers continue to interact across a greater number of platforms. B2B companies, with often greater price points and a longer buying cycle, may find the number of interactions with prospects prior to conversion even higher.
Good content marketers know that integrated, consistent messaging is critical across multiple digital platforms. It allows us to connect with our customers how – and when – they expect to connect with us.
With so many touch points between first contact and conversion, how are companies able to break through all of the data within analytics? We need to determine not only which channels are most effective, but also how to customize marketing activities to the behavior and preferences of the audience in that channel, at that point in their decision.
For example, a TopRank ecommerce client recently lamented the portion of conversions that could be attributed to direct search or branded search. According to their interpretation of the data available to them, the majority of their conversions came from direct traffic. Why then, they asked, are we dedicating resources to social media and SEO when their only purpose seems to be building brand awareness?
It’s a valid question; companies can’t afford to sink budget into underperforming channels or tactics. However, a deep dive into their Google Analytics data showed us that:

About 50% of conversions can be attributed directly to organic traffic.

80% of conversion paths included organic search as a touch point.

In fact, their second most popular conversion path looked like this:Arrives via Organic search (usually non-branded) > User leaves the site (probably to shop around) > User Returns via Direct Visit
For this particular client, SEO is absolutely a critical part of their mix! It would have been a grave mistake to discount search optimization altogether. In the mobile & social age, businesses must use Analytics data from multi-channel conversions to shape their marketing mix, as this ecommerce client did. That deeper understanding of your customers and prospects will help you make business decisions that make sense, founded in the most recent, relevant data available.
Let’s explore 3 ways to use multi-channel analytics data to shape your marketing strategy.

#1: Review social as part of assisted conversion strategy

Tracking ROI on social can be tricky; for many businesses, it’s less likely to be considered a referring source and more likely to be used as a means for amplifying content or interacting with customers and prospects directly. However, reviewing social as part of your multi-channel funnel will give you a much better idea of how your social visitors are interacting on the site.
To illustrate this, we’ll use the real-world example of relatively new fashion brand and TopRank client, who boasted higher-than-average traffic from social networks. Based on their analytics, we knew social traffic only contributed to 15% of total visits, yet the average social visitor spent 4x as long on the site and visited more pages.

Social as last click represented only a small portion of converting visitors, but social actually contributed to well over 30% of transactions. We knew for this business, social visitors were more apt to buy than the average user. Additional sales-oriented content to their social audience helped their social fans feel more valued and connected to the brand.The takeaway: Consider conversions beyond a purchase or Contact Us and you may find social visitors are more likely to download a white paper or watch a video than the average user. This information not only can help you refine your marketing mix, it can also shape your content plan by indicating the action your social visitors are most apt to take.

For example, distinguishing between branded and non-branded keyword traffic is a must for businesses measuring the impact of their SEO efforts. In our first example, an ecommerce client believed all conversions were coming from direct and branded search. However, filtering branded versus non-branded traffic allowed the client to not only see the impact of organic search as a whole, but also how non-branded searches were often the first touch leading to subsequent branded searches or direct visits.

The takeaway: Create a custom channel grouping leveraging unique labels for platforms. In addition to rounding out your marketing mix, customized grouping will allow you to mine out more data from the detected channels.

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Reg Nordman is the Managing Partner for Rocket Builders, a sales and marketing consultancy for high growth companies. He works with large and small companies such as , Asentus, Maximizer, Sophos, Microsoft Canada, and Research in Motion. Previously he has worked in direct and channel sales for major firms such as Unisys and Commodore.

Over the past 30 years this experience has spanned mining engineering at Anaconda Mines, teaching elementary and high school, working for the BC Provincial Government, lecturing on computing for the University of Victoria and University of British Columbia, sales for Unisys, Commodore, and Simply Computing/Strider Computer Centres, TNL Group, Westpro Construction, and Merit Consultants International. For his clients, Reg assists them in breaking through various sales and marketing challenges to grow the business. Using RocketBuilders Precision Sales and Marketing process he helps CEOS understand the dirty little secret about Sales and Marketing. What is that secret ? It has two parts. One, 95% of the money spent today by Sales and Marketing departments is “wasted” . Two, 100% close rations can be achieved.Â Reg is focused on getting clients “more effective selling time”.Reg has been publishing executive book reviews for his clients since 2002, and a blog since 2004. He has a BASc. (Mining) from the University of British Columbia, an M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) from the University of Victoria and a Diploma in Management Skills in Applied Technology from Simon Fraser University. He is a member of the UBC Keevil School of Mines Industry Advisory Committee and has served on numerous community volunteer groups.